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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/25370065">It's Silver-Grey</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Soveliss/pseuds/Soveliss'>Soveliss</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Drabble, I don't know what I'm doing tbh, Kinda?, My First Fanfic, Oops, coming of age?, how did that happen</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-07-19</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-07-19</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-05 09:46:48</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>978</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/25370065</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Soveliss/pseuds/Soveliss</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>A Draco Drabble in which things are slightly different. I think Draco's interesting. But he could be a little more complicated, right?</p>
<p>"What would you do, Draco," he asks, "to protect your parents?" Draco stares, slate eyes piercing and unmoving. "To protect Harry?"<br/>"Avada Kedavra!"</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>It's Silver-Grey</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Crossposting this from my ffn account (Soveliss42) from like May:<br/>I've been reading an unhealthy amount of fanfic for the last 10 months or so, and I decided to take a stab at it as a way of procrastinating studying for my APs. Here's my first... it's a drabble, really, but yeah. Hope you enjoy! Constructive criticism is welcome, and I think I've cleaned up the grammar and plot holes but who knows. -Soveliss</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>It's Riddle who assigns him the almost impossible: kill Dumbledore in his own castle. He makes a few mistakes. There are some casualties. It's just part of the job. Rescue his family from disfavor and they can guide him in the Dark Lord's world; the world outside Hogwarts. They succeeded last time, after all.</p>
<p>It's Dumbledore who gambles that night, in a tower lit by eerie green light. "What would you do, Draco," he asks, "to protect your parents?" Draco stares, slate eyes piercing and unmoving. "To protect Harry?" And Draco pauses for just a moment, before the atmosphere around him coalesces into a bright green on the tip of his wand. "Avada Kedavra!" Dumbledore dies with a smile on his face as Bellatrix arrives, followed by the rest of the Death Eaters. Draco gets indefinite house arrest the following summer. He suspects his parents support it for his own protection. He reads a lot. He even gives in to the muggle section - leftovers from before the Statue of Secrecy. They're surprisingly interesting. A society almost like his, but without magic.</p>
<p>It's Lovegood who, through the dimly lit bars underneath his own house, offers him something to do again. Voice soft and in utter contrast with her surroundings, she confides in Draco. "Harry has an invisibility cloak, did you know? Its got the same flibbets as Tom's wand. They're nice and yellow." Draco leans against the opposite wall, looking sullenly at the end of the corridor where a pair of candles flicker, linked by elaborate metalwork. "Tell Hermione that the doe is looking for them, will you?" Draco blinks.</p>
<p>"The doe?"</p>
<p>"Oh." It's barely a whisper now. "I thought… I'm sorry, Draco." Her eyes, now wide and unblinking, unnerve Draco until he turns on a heel and briskly walks away into the gloom. They haunt his eyes for days afterwards as he hides to muffle the screams of torture. He counts himself lucky the Dark Lord does not call him until after they are gone, disappearing into aether with a sudden crack that echoes through the gloomy corridor, unheard by those above.</p>
<p>It isn't until the third day of recovery at Shell Cottage that Hermione notices the piece of paper tucked under the books on her desk - she was sure it hadn't been there yesterday. The first three lines are scratched out, below which it reads, "Luna says the Doe is looking for you, and something about Potter's Cloak and Tom's Wand. I hope this means anything to you." The scrawl is torn off at the bottom, two marks indicating a lost signature. Underneath this is another scrap with an even shorter message: "Dobby found this charmed invisible in your laundry. -Doe"</p>
<p>It's the Carrows' mandated torture during which Draco notices the similarities in each victim's suffering. It's the first time he's ever realized they were victims rather than casualties, because he has to see them in the hallways and at meals every day, eyes downturned or else glaring quietly. Mudbloods, half-bloods, even the occasional pureblood - all alike in indignity. In pain. In their new, rusted cage made by the Dark Lord's servants out of the warped bars of old. Still, he can't help but notice that Lovegood's eyes, silver-grey like his own, continue to shine, quietly self-assured in a castle of gloom. He's not quite sure why, but it makes him feel just a little bit better.</p>
<p>It's Severus he turns to for help, who suggests using the Imperius to make them fake it convincingly. "I learned it from a Hare." he says, and Draco believes him. Draco still believes him when he glimpses a silver doe shooting out of the window after Severus thinks he's left.</p>
<p>It's Potter himself that saves Draco from the tendrils of flame licking at his heels in the Room of Requirement. Who then asks Draco, almost meekly, if he can borrow his wand, because he still doesn't have one, and it seems like a good idea to face Voldemort with a wand in hand.</p>
<p>It's Goyle who surprises Draco the most, though. "Look, you're the leader, with the theatrics and all, so… you need this more than I do." He presses his wand, still overly warm from the fire, into Draco's hand, and starts to walk away. "I'm going to go help the little ones. That doesn't need a wand, right?" It's Goyle's eyes, staring lifelessly from an acromantula's jaw, that plead Draco as he stares, jaw slack, frozen with surprise. Until his life is saved by Potter, again.</p>
<p>It's Draco who runs from the crowd, a third voice in a tale of two adversaries. "Protego!" he shouts, Goyle's wand trained on Voldemort as he dives in front of his old rival. Potter glances down at him in astonishment as two spells rush towards each other, Draco trapped in the middle of the duel a lifetime in the making. When the flash of light subsides, the Boy Who Lived stands victorious, holding two wands. Voldemort disintegrates into a thousand pieces, a casualty of his own rebounding curse, the elder wand dropping to clatter against stone tiles. And in between, a boy falls to the ground, wandless and sobbing.</p>
<p>The pain in his left forearm didn't feel like an honor bestowed by a gracious lord. It didn't feel like glorious victory, either. It felt like the worst thing he could possibly imagine for the rest of his life. And it left behind just the tiniest sense of atonement - of a good start. Like a hare, nibbling on the first tender shoot of grass in spring. Like a hare, whose silver grace bounded up to his weeping form and said, in a light, airy voice, that his mother was waiting for him, just outside the castle grounds. "I think she's proud of you."</p>
<p>It's Luna who helps him heal, piece by broken piece.</p>
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